(a)        The State Board of Education shall establish and maintain an electronic dashboard to publicly display information related to digital learning. The State Board shall include in the dashboard, at a minimum, the following categories of information to be reported:

(1)        In-school digital device access, including the following information disaggregated by public school unit, school, and grade level:

a.         Number and percentage of students with access to digital devices within the school.

b.         Source of digital devices, such as the public school unit or the student’s home.

c.         Type of device.

(2)        Out-of-school digital device access, including the following information disaggregated by public school unit, school, and grade level:

a.         Number and percentage of students with access to digital devices outside of the school.

b.         Source of digital devices, such as the public school unit, the student’s home, or both.

c.         Type of device.

d.         For homes with no devices, reason for lack of devices.

(3)        Out-of-school internet connectivity, including the following information disaggregated by public school unit, school, and grade level:

a.         Number and percentage of students with internet connectivity outside of the school available by the following categories:

1.         Students with connectivity at home.

2.         Students without connectivity at home but who have regular and reliable access to other sources of connectivity.

b.         For students without home connectivity, primary source for internet connectivity outside of the school.

c.         Type of connectivity, such as broadband, satellite, or dial-up.

d.         For homes with no connectivity, reason for lack of connectivity.

(b)        Each public school unit shall annually submit all categories of information included in the digital learning dashboard no later than November 15. For subdivisions (2) and (3) of subsection (a) of this section, residential schools shall report on access and connectivity separately for the dormitories and the student’s home.

(c)        The State Board of Education shall annually report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by February 15 on statewide trends reflected in the digital learning dashboard, successes and continued challenges in ensuring all students have digital learning access both in and out of school, and recommendations on ways to continue to close the digital learning accessibility gap. ?(2021-180, s. 7.61(a).)

Terms Used In North Carolina General Statutes 115C-102.9

  • board: means a city board of education, county board of education, or a city-county board of education. See North Carolina General Statutes 115C-5
  • following: when used by way of reference to any section of a statute, shall be construed to mean the section next preceding or next following that in which such reference is made; unless when some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
  • Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
  • Public school unit: Any of the following:

    a. See North Carolina General Statutes 115C-5

  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories, so called; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the said district and territories and all dependencies. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3